CD: Messiaen, 'Fêtes des belles eaux'

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Published 4:00 am, Sunday, January 4, 2009

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CD: Messiaen, 'Fêtes des belles eaux'

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The ondes martenot - that eerie, hard-to-love proto-electronic instrument that keens and swoops its way through so much of Messiaen's music - presents an entirely different face in this gorgeous, revelatory new release by an ondes ensemble (yes, you read that right) from Montreal. The vehicle is "La Fête des belles eaux," a sextet commissioned for a 1937 outdoor festival on the Seine, and the music is nothing short of ravishing. In place of the ondes' usual otherworldly metallic sheen, the sound here is ripe and darkly colored, and Messiaen's contrapuntal side comes through as it rarely does. The flow of melody is a perfect counterpart to the plashing of the river. "Feuillets inédits," a posthumous duet for ondes and piano, fills out the disc, and just for fun, the ensemble throws in a beautiful transcription of the first movement of Ravel's String Quartet.

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LA FÊTES DES BELLES EAUX

ENSEMBLE D'ONDES DE MONTRÉAL

ATMA CLASSIQUE

$16.98

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